John Zidich balks, talks...

Thie eve, I caught up with Arizona Republic publisher John Zidich (referred to by wags as Zee-Dick) via phone at his Scottsdale pad, and asked him about the reorganization of the Repugnant's newsroom, which I blogged about on Wednesday. Zidich denies that Rep employees were made to "reapply" for their positions recently. But he did acknowledge the new primacy of the Rep's so-called "Information Center." He described the process employees are undergoing there now in executive-ese:

"We have not done anything to that extent," claimed Zidich concerning the "reapply" issue. "As we said, there's going to be an opportunity for people to apply for positions. Some positions won't change as much as others. But it's going to be a thing of inclusiveness. It's not that we're asking and we have not done anything to that extent."

Zidich also took issue with my characterization of our conversation back in November, when I stated that he laughed as I asked him questions regarding the elimination of 31 Rep staffers. Zidich insisted he was only laughing at the question I had asked him -- about Gannett's desire to buy the Tribune Co. I'm not going to argue the point. The guy chuckled. If he says he was chuckling at my query, so be it.